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Typhoon Haiyan: A Year of Recovery

Photo: Tyler Jump/IRC

When a powerful typhoon — Haiyan — ravaged the Philippines in 2013, the International Rescue Committee helped local communities rebuild and prepare for the next disaster. After Typhoon Hagupit struck the islands last fall the emergency preparedness paid off: IRC-supported aid groups were able to provide immediate assistance and save lives.

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How We Help

The IRC distributed water storage containers and other emergency supplies immediately after Typhoon Haiyan and continued to work in the most devastated areas for months.

The most vulnerable people affected by Typhoon Haiyan were given vouchers redeemable for construction materials at local stores and small cash grants to pay for labor in order to rebuild their homes.

Typhoon Haiyan had a disastrous impact on the fishing economy that provides most of the food and income for families on the island of Panay in the Visayas region. The IRC and its partner, Philippine Business for Social Progress, supplied motorized boats to fishermen, installed floating and sea-floor artificial reefs and newly planted mangroves to protect the shore from erosion and serve as a breeding ground for fish.

The IRC partnered with Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., to rebuild 20 daycare centers which will double as safe houses during future storms.

In addition, using our “Healing Classrooms” approach, the IRC trained 21 daycare teachers. “Healing Classrooms,” designed specifically for survivors of conflict and natural disasters, helps teachers develop an environment where students feel safe, cared for and engaged.

Typhoon Haiyan: Aid Worker Updates

Typhoon #Haiyan: A year of recovery

In the devastating wake of Typhoon #Haiyan, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and our partners in the Philippines focused on urgent water, sanitation, hygiene and health needs. One year on, hear how we are helping communities recover and rebuild.

Nov. 7, 2014 - Tomorrow will be the 1-year anniversary of Typhoon Haiyan hitting the Philippines. This video is the first part of our "Portraits of Recovery" multimedia series, taking a look at the tremendous progress that has been made over the past year in the communities the IRC helped rebuild. Learn more at Rescue.org/TyphoonHaiyan

Typhoon Haiyan: Fishing villages recovertheirc

Tomorrow is the 1-year anniversary of Typhoon #Haiyan, a super typhoon that cut a devastating path… http://t.co/wtaxQVx7PJIntl Rescue Comm IRC

Photos from my recent trip back to the #Philippines one year after #TyphoonHaiyan https://t.co/FZhUqPL6Vi @theIRCTyler Jump

Philmarie Torabilias & classmates work on model of a sturdy home at a disaster resistant daycare centre #Philippines http://t.co/CkXxCz0B7WIntnl Rescue Comm UK

Portraits of recovery: one year after Typhoon Haiyan [PHOTO ESSAY]The IRC's Tyler Jump returns to the Philippines one year later to witness the tremendous progress that has been made in the communities the IRC helped rebuild.

Great photos of IRC's innovative program using vouchers to support community rebuilding, local economy after #Haiyan: http://t.co/gVMKYJH2k3Intl Rescue Comm IRC

Photos: Helping homeowners in the Philippines rebuild after Typhoon HaiyanThe International Rescue Committe and our partner Philippines Business for Social Progress (PBSP) are providing vouchers to help 600 resi...

Thx to @EarnestEats for donating $1 for every online order made thru 12/31 to support IRC's Typhoon #Haiyan response! http://t.co/wGhrnyFVVIIntl Rescue Comm IRC

Meeting Urgent Needs

Dec. 11, 2013 - in a recent International Rescue Committee briefing from the field, IRC director of emergency preparedness and response Bob Kitchen described the IRC's approach to assisting survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, focusing on the hard-hit islands of Panay and Cebu, which have seen little aid. He said:

"We ... make sure that we prioritize our programs based on the voices of those that we’re there to serve and then we swing into action: starting to procure goods, deliver goods, rebuilding homes and communities."

"...[the survivors] know what it’s going to take to get back on their feet and they just need a little bit of help to get there. And that’s the message we’ve heard, and that’s how we’ve tailored our programs."

The IRC is helping to meet some of the most urgent needs of thousands of families, distributing clean water and jerry cans for water storage. We are also focusing on providing solar lamps (called Waka Waka lights) and emergency shelter kits made up of rope and plastic sheeting and bamboo. We're also developing livelihood programs that will help families and communities to recover and rebuild.

Solar for Philippines

Dec. 9, 2013 -Following earlier relief efforts in Syria and also with the #SolarforSyria campaign, WakaWaka is working again with the International Rescue Committee to provide solar powered devices that enable survivors of #TyphoonHaiyan to see after dark and to charge their phones to connect with family members and loved ones elsewhere:

Get your family a socially responsible solar charger and give one to Haiyan survivors: http://t.co/LFiNIfgGak #xmasWakaWaka

Dec. 6, 2013 - The International Rescue Committee is delivering emergency aid and setting up programs and services to help people in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines recover and rebuild. Hear from Virgie del la Cruz, whose house was destroyed in the typhoon, as well as from IRC staff who are on the ground implementing relief and recovery programs:

New video tells story of Virgie del la Cruz, who lost almost everything in #Haiyan, and how the IRC is responding: http://t.co/pInFt6PttjIntl Rescue Comm IRC

Dec. 5, 2013 - Todaythe International Rescue Committee hosted a phone briefing with updates on our emergency responses in the Philippines and Syria. Speakers included Bob Kitchen, the IRC's director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, and Sanj Srikanthan, IRC emergency field director:

Crises in Syria and the Philippines: Listen to the IRC's update from the fieldOn Dec. 5, the International Rescue Committee hosted a phone briefing with updates from IRC staff experts on our emergency responses in t...

Small villages after Typhoon Haiyan: "We need help to rebuild"With so much focus on the devastation in larger coastal cities, many Filipino families in small villages remain in dire need after Typhoo...

@UncleRUSH @WakaWakaLight thanks for your support and for helping to spread the word!Intl Rescue Comm IRC

Help bring light & power back to #Haiyan survivors with @theIRC and @WakaWakaLight: http://t.co/SgOU978bCf #SolarforPhilippines Pls RT!Russell Simmons

Nov. 25, 2013 - An update from the International Rescue Committee's @TylerJump, with the IRC's emergency response team in the Philippines:

We spent the weekend in Bantayan, an island badly hit by the storm in Northern Cebu. The island is the largest egg-producing region in all of the Philippines, and many of the chicken farms were destroyed by the storm.

Crowds of people greeted us as we arrived in one of the coastal villages on Bantayan... Houses throughout the village were flattened by the storm and livelihoods have been severely disrupted. At this point any little bit that aid organizations bring is a welcome comfort.

More aid is getting to more people, but it still doesn’t seem to be enough. It’s going to take a lot more to get these communities back on track.

And again, resiliency seems to be the story. According to [IRC senior environmental health coordinator] Bibi Lamond:

“The priority needs have been shelter and food. People were asking for money ... to buy fishing boats and rebuild their homes... They’re in absolute dire straits, and they want to work. [But] there wasn’t one focus group or interview that we did where people didn’t find something to laugh about.”

In profile, IRC's Melody Munz speaks about her work & how IRC's emergency response to #Haiyan and elsewhere is unique http://t.co/gum5YjdSiiIntl Rescue Comm IRC

Nov. 22, 2013 -"I’ve always sought out new experiences and been interested in how people cope with their problems," says Melody Munz, an IRC first responder in the Philippines. Learn what motivated Melody to became an aid worker and what she says is unique about the IRC's contribution to the Typhoon Haiyan relief effort:

Profile in courageAn IRC first responder in the Philippines talks about the difficulties and satisfactions of bringing emergency aid to people in extreme n...

Nov. 22, 2013 - An update from the International Rescue Committee's @TylerJump, with the IRC's emergency response team on Panay Island in the Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan wreaked enormous damage on Panay and the larger Western Visayas region, but little aid has been getting through:

Rescue

"Still in Northern Panay, we traveled to the coast again today … I feel like we see new and worse damage every day, but within it new structures are starting to be built everywhere, some surprisingly quickly. We visited a badly damaged rice milling factory. They were protecting their reserves of rice with tarps from the rain as the entire roof was gone. The mill was damaged in the storm and no longer working. Even with their struggles, they were preparing and distributing rice rations in the parking lot, complete with seasoning.

The needs remain: food, shelter reconstruction, and livelihoods. Everyone is telling us how badly they want to get back to work."

Great resilience, urgent needs in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan [Photos]The Philippines' Western Visayas suffered a direct hit from Typhoon Haiyan, but relief efforts have been slow or absent. In the wake of t...

Rescue

@WakaWakaLight @ThunderclapIt just signed up!Intl Rescue Comm IRC

@theIRC Will you help spread the word about #SolarforPhilippines? Please support us on @ThunderclapIt here: http://t.co/94iYDnSpa4!WakaWaka

#TheIRC's emergency response team is on the ground in the #Philippines assessing needs and focusing our #Typhoon #Haiyan response. Priorities are clean #water, #healthcare, supplies to rebuild and stay safe Rescue.org/TyphoonInternational Rescue Committee

To help support the IRC's #Haiyan response, text REBUILD to 25383 to donate $10. Terms: http://t.co/u7lq8MZUJEIntl Rescue Comm IRC

Storm survivors need "anything that can help us go back to our normal lives"

Nov. 20. 2013 - An update from the International Rescue Committee's @TylerJump, with the IRC's emergency response team on Panay Island in the Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan wreaked enormous damage on Panay and the larger western Visayas region, but little aid has been getting through:

This week our team has been traveling to some of the most difficult to access and underserved communities. We were often the first to visit. We traveled north along the coast in Panay, Pontevedra, Pres Roxas, Pilar and Carles municipalities. Other IRC teams visited more municipalities along the east coast of the island.

The amount of damage [to homes and businesses] is very high. Numbers are still above 90% affected. From our own assessments, we regularly saw upwards of 50% destroyed plus 40% damaged in many locations.

We met a man in Panay whose home was completely destroyed. His family of 8 is sharing a much smaller makeshift shelter set up directly behind where his house once stood. They’ve stopped working completely to focus on rebuilding their home, which they’d started doing already, and are relying completely on goods that are coming in. When asked what they needed most they replied, “anything that can help us go back to our normal lives.” Many of the families we met said similar things. The focus really seems to be on getting things rebuilt and getting back to normalcy.

In another community on the coast, a woman told us they’d lost a number of boats in the storm which left fishermen without any means of income. The lack of boats also affected the women who work on the shore helping the fishermen bring their catch in, the women in the market who sell the fish, and of course the end consumers. No boats not only meant no fish, it meant no income in the normal production chain. The woman said, “we need to get our livelihoods back so we can buy food.”

This was a common theme in our conversations. People asking for help getting back to work.

Focus on areas where little aid is getting through

"What is clear from everything we are seeing on the ground is that access to uncontaminated water is a top priority. Safe drinking water difficult to come by. Using water filtration systems, the IRC is focused on getting clean water to people in some of the most isolated areas in the western Visayas region – provinces like Aklan and Antique where some 600,000 people have been displaced but very little aid is getting through." Read more.

Typhoon Haiyan: Inside the IRC's emergency responseThe IRC is focusing on urgent water, sanitation, hygiene and health needs in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, along with pr...

To help:

Donate now to support families devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines | International Rescue Committee (IRC)On the ground in some of the world's most troubled places, the IRC helps people at their moment of greatest need - providing shelter, med...

Nov. 19. 2013 - An update from the International Rescue Committee's @TylerJump, with the IRC's emergency response team on Panay Island, in the hard hit western Visayas region of the Philippines:

[On Monday] we drove with our local partners, Philippine Business for Social Progress, from Iloilo north to Roxas, where the UN has set up aid coordination headquarters for the island. On the way, the damage became progressively more severe. While the main road had essentially been cleared, power lines still crisscrossed often (we even saw children playing on the downed lines a few times), tin roofs were peeled back from their structures and trees had collapsed everywhere, often splitting homes and other buildings in two.

Many schools and markets along the main road seemed to be open and functioning, but we also heard reports of schools still closed as a result of damage and people living in them.

In Roxas we heard from local officials that the provincial government response funds have nearly been exhausted. They’re relying heavily on outside organizations to continue to provide relief. The needs remain: food, medicine, water, shelter and most importantly the restoration of electricity, water supply systems and communications.

Even less attention has been given to communities inland, where we’ve heard reports of damage equally as bad, and where access is potentially even more difficult. Some of these areas are only accessible by foot and can take hours to hike to. Trips in have become significantly more challenging with storm debris.

What's actually needed in the Philippines? The director of emergencies for @theIRC tells us here: http://bit.ly/1856mU6The Takeaway

Philippines begins to get international aid but still faces massive challengesTACLOBAN, Philippines-For days, this busy trading town in the central Philippines was paralyzed by the impact of one of the most powerful...

Nov. 13, 2013 - "Organizations such as the International Rescue Committee have learned a great deal from responding to past catastrophes, from the earthquake in Haiti and floods in Pakistan in 2010 to the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

Where state resilience and infrastructure are weak, the immediate concern, beyond first aid for those harmed in the first wave of destruction, is recovering, maintaining and reconstructing basic water and sanitation services. A cholera outbreak is always a threat, and other diseases such as typhoid are often the first killers to emerge."

On the ground

- IRC emergency teams that include experts in water, sanitation and health, hope to reach some of the hardest hit areas, including Tacloban and Cebu, by Friday. An IRC emergency protection expert will join them later this week to help set up programs to assist vulnerable women and children. Also, a cash for work program will be put in place as soon as is feasible to help provide storm survivors with a source of income.

- The main destruction appears to have been concentrated in Tacloban, though six regions of the country have been affected. There is concern that because many communities in the archipelago have been cut off, officials do not yet know the scale or impact of the typhoon in more outlying areas.

- Since November 8, many Tacloban residents have spent recent nights without shelter, sleeping under trees or the ruins of buildings badly damaged by Haiyan.

- The storm also destroyed basic water and sanitation infrastructure, which has contributed to a growing public health risk. Local doctors have said they are desperate for basic medical supplies, so they can treat the wounded.

- IRC contacts in Tacloban report to us that nearly all of the hospitals in the vicinity have been either destroyed or are shut because of a lack of staff and available medicine. Among those hospitals working, power supplies have been cut to help mitigate the risk of electrocution.

- Looting is rife in Tacloban and other typhoon-affected areas. UNHCR (@Refugees) expressed concern that women and children will be at particular risk from looters and acts of criminality

Thank you

We are awed by the generous response to our Typhoon Haiyan relief appeal by so many individuals and companies who support the IRC. We're spotlighting just a few of them here, with a very great thanks to all:

You can donate here to help the IRC provide a strong humanitarian response in the Philippines.

Clean water

Rescue

Nov. 12, 2013 - "People are having a hard time finding uncontaminated water," says IRC emergency response director Bob Kitchen, stressing that the IRC is particularly concerned about the health risks posed to survivors staying in camps and shelters where disease can spread quickly. Delivering clean water and safe sanitation and providing health care are the first areas the IRC is focusing on in our response. "With so many people living at close quarters," Bob says, "we are fighting against the clock."

You can make a gift to support our Typhoon Haiyan emergency response here or text REBUILD to 25383 to donate $10.

Maps of the storm surge and destruction from Typhoon Haiyan: http://nyti.ms/HPohE7 #Philippines by @nytgraphicsNew York Times World

"The devastation has displaced hundreds of ...Facebook

Emergency response priorities

Nov, 12, 2013 - "The devastation has displaced hundreds of thousands and left many in dire need of food, medical assistance and shelter. The storm has destroyed basic water and sanitation infrastructure, ensuing a significant public health risk. The IRC emergency team first will focus on immediate needs to save lives, including health care, clean water and sanitation."

For more information from the IRC's Emergency Response team and how to help, visit: http://bit.ly/19eD2Gw

Rescue

Thanks and how to help

Thank you to all of the generous individuals and organizations who have already supported the International Rescue Committee's Typhoon Haiyan emergency response in the Philippines.

Donate now to support families devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines | International Rescue Committee (IRC)On the ground in some of the world's most troubled places, the IRC helps people at their moment of greatest need - providing shelter, med...

"This is a situation we haven't seen since the tsunami in 2004: whole towns wiped out." Bob Kitchen @theIRC #Haiyan http://www.rescue.org/4AL4Kate Sands Adams

Clean water & sanitation needs are huge in wake of #Haiyan to prevent diseaseDominique Tuohy

'Families straining filthy water through t-shirts to try to get rid of dirt' says BBC radio 4 correspondent from #tacloban #haiyanDominique Tuohy

Rescue efforts

Nov 11, 2013 - IRC emergency response director Bob Kitchen spoke with ABC News today about the aid effort the IRC is mobilizing in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan: "This is a situation we haven't seen since the tsunami in 2004: whole towns wiped out." Watch video:

Cleanup efforts in PhilippinesBob Kitchen of the International Rescue Committee discusses rescue efforts and the need to get sanitation systems up and running.

Urgent response

Nov. 10, 2013 - The IRC has dispatched an emergency team to the Philippines to launch an urgent response to the humanitarian catastrophe wreaked by Typhoon Haiyan. The super storm struck the country on Saturday, wrecking homes, flooding villages and leaving millions in need of immediate assistance. (Reuters photo)

The IRC has dispatched an emergency team to theFacebook

Donate now to support families devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines | International Rescue Committee (IRC)On the ground in some of the world's most troubled places, the IRC helps people at their moment of greatest need - providing shelter, med...

International Rescue Committee deploys to Philippines in response to Typhoon HaiyanIn the face of a rising death toll and widespread humanitarian catastrophe the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has dispatched an eme...

Nov 10, 2013 -CBS News: Typhoon Haiyan/Typhoon Yolanda recovery: How you can help: "The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. They are sending teams to assist in the Philippines."

Typhoon Haiyan recovery: How you can helpTyphoon Haiyan (also known as Typhoon Yolanda) devastated the Philippines on Nov. 8, 2013, and is currently barreling its way towards Vie...